Imperial Envoy (3)
I had come before the palace to submit a memorial to the Emperor. The moment word reached her that I had arrived, she dismissed, all at once, the officials who had been deliberating the great and small affairs of the state, and took me aside for a private audience.
Honestly, this was the part I dreaded every single time. Couldn't she simply let them stay and listen? An Emperor ought to have at least one minister at her side to hear counsel — it looks better that way, after all. It wasn't as if I only ever brought matters so grave that no other ear could be allowed near them…
Observing proper etiquette, I inclined my head slightly and made to approach the throne with quick, mincing steps.
"General-in-Chief."
At that, the Emperor — having already cleared the room of every last attendant — called out to me.
I hadn't even drawn near yet. What was this about?
To ignore an imperial summons would have been a breach of courtesy, but so would answering while still in motion; I stopped stock-still where I stood.
"You called for me?"
Halting in place, I bowed at the waist as I gave my answer. The Emperor then put a question to me.
"Does it not discomfort you, having to walk like that every time you stand before Us?"
And what intent lay behind this question, I wondered.
My head and waist were both inclined at that moment, leaving me no way to know what expression the Emperor wore on her throne.
Putting my sluggish brain to its fullest use, I somehow managed to open my mouth.
"…How could an act that proclaims my loyalty to Your Majesty ever be uncomfortable?"
That should be the right answer, surely? I felt rather pleased with myself.
Contrary to my expectations, however, the Emperor did not appear the least bit satisfied with my reply.
"Hmm…"
I could feel her, having made a sound of distinct displeasure, studying me at length.
That wasn't the correct answer? From the standpoint of an Empress and the ministers who served her, hadn't it been a hundred-point reply?
Rolling my eyes to their very limits, I strained to catch any reaction from her — though naturally, no matter how I rolled them, the distance was too great for me to make out so much as the tip of her shoe.
Just as I was busy gauging her mood, the Emperor spoke in a level voice.
"General-in-Chief. Raise your head."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
When I lifted my head as commanded, the Emperor was regarding me with a peculiarly sulky expression.
"Telling you to raise your head every time you come here grows rather tiresome."
……
"From now on, you need not perform the chuchang — bowing at the waist and advancing or withdrawing in quick, shuffling steps — when granted an audience with Us. Do you understand?"
……?
Something about this was off.
Ignorant as I was of court protocol, even I could tell that what the Emperor was saying was anything but ordinary.
I hurried to open my mouth.
"However, Your Majesty—"
No sooner had the words left my lips than the Emperor cut me off flat.
"Are you appending a 'but' to Our words just now?"
"My, that is a touch insolent of you."
……
"Then I suppose I shall have to punish you."
Judging by that impish smile, I doubted it would be much of a punishment.
She had ordered me to keep my head raised, after all, so all I could do was stare back at her in bewildered silence.
"You will also have no further need to remove your shoes before entering Our presence."
……
Yes, this was definitely strange.
The Emperor seated before me was dismantling, one by one with her own hands, the very rites a subject was bound to observe at an imperial audience.
This absolutely could not stand. The moment her words became reality, I dreaded to imagine how the court officials would look at me. They might well glare as though lasers were about to shoot from their eyes.
Determined to turn her mind by any means, I opened my mouth.
"Your Majesty, I beg you to reconsider your deci—"
"More unnecessary words, I see."
Once again the Emperor cut me off mid-sentence. Adopting a pose of deep deliberation, she fixed me with those impenetrable black eyes.
"Hmm… let me see. Next would be keeping your sword at your hip even in Our presence, I suppose."
……
"So — what was it you were saying just now?"
Faced with the Emperor's smiling inquiry, I had no choice but to bend my waist in a slow bow.
"…I said I would follow Your Majesty's command."
If this conversation went on any longer, I really would end up standing before her with my sword still girded, so I hastened to accept the decree. All I had done was come to submit a memorial, same as always — how on earth had it come to this? I was too bewildered to get my bearings at all.
"Good. Wisely decided."
Only when I accepted did the Emperor at last break into an innocent smile befitting her years.
"Now then, I should hear the reason you have come to Us. What is the matter?"
Submitting a single memorial really is an ordeal.
Loosening a silent sigh, I presented my memorial to the Emperor.
……
Taking it from my hands, she read it through from top to bottom with a composed expression. When she had finished, she looked up at me.
"There is one thing that catches my attention, but I shall ask about it later."
What is it this time? What could weigh on her so much that she would bring out the line subordinates least want to hear from their superiors — 'we'll talk later'?
Why did Mi Fang betray Guan Yu, anyway? Don't tell me something was wrong with the memorial itself? But if there had been, then even if it escaped me, there was no way it would have slipped past Jia Xu and Sima Yi — and the two of them would never have joined forces to deceive me…
While I was briefly lost in doubt, the Emperor continued.
"You propose to suppress the bandits that have broken out in Qingzhou and Xuzhou?"
It was far too late to back out now, so I conveyed my thinking to her exactly as it stood.
"Yes, Your Majesty. The bandits in Qingzhou and Xuzhou grow more wanton in their lawlessness with every passing day, I am told."
"Grim news indeed."
The Emperor, it seemed, had heard word of the situation herself, for she showed every sign of agreeing with my report.
"Inspector Tao Qian of Xuzhou and Chancellor Kong Rong of Beihai are exerting themselves to the utmost to put the bandits down, but the task is beyond their strength."
Kong Rong had never even dared contemplate subjugating the bandits, devoting himself entirely to barricading his gates and enduring the siege. For all his 'Confucius says, Mencius says,' such learning availed a man nothing on a battlefield — so I could, on the whole, understand why Kong Rong carried on as he did.
Was Taishi Ci at Kong Rong's side even now, I wondered? With Liu Bei absent, I found myself idly curious where she would go to plead for relief.
Tao Qian, though, kept responding with a tepid vagueness I couldn't for the life of me explain. It left me genuinely wondering whether the man had any intention of suppressing them at all. Word had it that of late he had been keeping close company with a crowd of flatterers — that old fox Tao Qian seemed to be in a rather peculiar state himself.
The Emperor said nothing, only studying me in silence for a long while.
"To that end — how would it be to order Governor Cao Cao of Yanzhou to dispatch reinforcements to Qingzhou and Xuzhou and crush these bandits?"
"Do as the General-in-Chief wishes."
The Emperor accepted my proposal without a flicker of deliberation.
"When have We ever once refused a request of yours?"
"Your grace is boundless, Your Majesty."
With all due courtesy, I paid my respects to the Emperor.
"Is that the only reason you came to see Us?"
"It is, Your Majesty."
"I see."
The Emperor nodded, then leaned her head slightly toward me.
"Then I take it I may ask my question now?"
"…Yes."
No doubt this was the point she had mentioned earlier. Compared with what I usually submitted, it had been an extraordinarily polished memorial — what on earth could have seemed off about it?
I waited for the question with an even expression, and the Emperor opened her mouth at leisure.
"General-in-Chief, this reads quite differently from what you usually submit. Did you have someone help you revise it?"
So that was it. And here I had been taking it all so gravely.
The Emperor had seen at a glance that the document differed starkly from my usual writing. Fitting indeed, for a sovereign who must have been drilled in every art of letters since childhood.
I had no reason to lie, so I answered her question honestly.
"When I attempted to compose it alone with my meager talents, the result kept transgressing proper form, so I received the assistance of those around me."
……
At that answer, displeasure clouded the Emperor's face. She looked for all the world like an active volcano that had smoldered in restraint until it could hold back no longer and erupted.
…?
Sensing something distinctly ominous in the air, I began cautiously reading her mood.
Then the Emperor spoke in a placid tone.
"Did you know?"
……
It had not been a question that wanted answering, so I held my peace and waited for her to continue.
"We have kept every letter, memorial, and formal document you have ever written Us, from the very beginning."
……?
For an instant, a "Huh?" surged all the way up my throat. Everything I had written to the Emperor over the years would number well past a hundred pieces — and she had kept them all?
Having heard something beyond all imagining, I did my utmost to conceal my bewilderment.
Come to think of it, back in Xiliang, when she complained that a letter I had sent lacked sincerity, she had shown it to me before taking it straight back.
At the time I had assumed she meant to deal with it separately, so I hadn't thought it strange — had that been because she intended to keep it all along?
The Emperor spoke to me with a serene smile.
"I think fondly even of your clumsy penmanship, so there is no need for this ever again. Do you understand?"
She was smiling on the surface, but the atmosphere was anything but, and so I bowed my head.
"…Yes, Your Majesty."
Once I acquiesced, the Emperor continued in an even voice.
"We have no particular desire to interfere in the relationships you keep around you, General-in-Chief."
……
"But if our respective domains cease to be respected, then even I cannot say what I might do."
All I could do at those chilling words was bow my head.
…Genuinely terrifying.